Lingers
by TheDarkestShinobi
Summary: 'The lingering scent of sakura blossom still clings to her skin.'  The quote from Spacegal's description inspired this story.  No couples.


'The lingering scent of sakura blossom still clings to her skin.'

I'm sort of really silly and didn't really get the hang of LJ so I gave up on it. However I saw the quote above and got an idea. The prompt was supposed to be for KasumixRyu but I had an idea for Ayane and ran with it and this one shot popped out.

**Story start**

Ayane had killed many people before. She still remembers her first as vividly. He was ninja from the Spider Clan that had wandered too far from home. Instead of retreating at the sight of the Hajin Mon he thought he could kill the guard and be honored at home for it. Ayane had snapped his neck quickly and effectively and as if fell to the ground she felt the eyes of everyone else watching her for signs of regret.

She felt proud of herself. She was fifteen.

She could still feel the soft skin of his neck against her callused hands; feel the hardness of his dry hair that almost scratched her skin as he fell. If she thought hard enough she would be able to hear the thud his body made as he hid the floor and the sickening crack of his neck. She remembered how it felt the very moment it snapped, when the resistance gave way as she overcame the bones and ligaments and killed him.

Still, she didn't _feel _anything from it.

They sent her into the field after that and her hands became the crimson shade of blood more times than she could count. She had never regretted anything. It made her a great kunoichi, her devotion to her village and her inability to _feel._ The only time she had done anything akin to _feeling _was when she dug her blade into her adoptive father's heart. Still she had not felt regret and she had known it had to be done, she had felt sad. She had even cried at his fiery grave. She never told anyone and when she picked up his weapon she held it close to her heart where her father had been.

She kept it there, and never let anything else in.

Hayate had sent her to dispose of Alpha 152 despite Ryu's protest that it had to be Kasumi. Ayane had bowed her head and began her chase. It was easy to find her as she left a trail of destruction behind her. She watched as it fought and lost to her half-sister. Ayane had hidden and watched. Her memory had seemed to liven at the sight, replaying fond memories ending with the night she found out why she was the hated child. It was the night she shut herself off from everyone. It was the day she stopped _feeling_.

When Kasumi, weak, tired and injured had stabbed and killed her clone with the wizikazi blade Ayane had struck her. The look of shock in Kasumi's eyes had been over lined with a resigned look of pain. The clone died first fizzing out of existence and Kasumi had looked towards her killer with lidded eyes. Ayane had not hated her sister, she had loved her, but she numbed the feeling when she was in the Hajin Mon. However seeing her sister in pain seemed to awaken something and she kneeled next to her.

"I'm sorry sister, but I had to."

"Sister?"

Kasumi had choked out the question with one of her last breaths and Ayane had just been in shock. Kasumi had never known? Ayane watched her sister die then. She tried not to feel, to go back to the numb state she was in before but she just couldn't. Ayane had reported the deaths to Hayate before retreating to the confines of her mind.

She could only fill her mind with the memories of someone who had not dealt with her sister, but a girl who went out of her way to help the shunned girl. She realized she was an actual friend. Ayane had killed the only person who had every appreciated her for who she was, the only one who didn't ask questions. The only one who had just accepted her.

Kasumi had been her friend, and Ayane repaid her with a blade to the heart.

Ayane was a great kunoichi, as she prided herself on it. She had taught herself not to feel, she put the clan above everyone else. She had accomplished what every ninja had set out to do and became the very definition of the word shinobi. She had become the pride of the village she was once the outcast off. When she led the clan to victory she had done it with a heart of steel and had never looked back.

If you asked her she would honestly tell you that she did not regret a single thing she had done in her life, however, for some reason the lingering scent of sakura blossom still clings to her skin.

**TDS: **review!


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